TEACHING OF ENGLISH - Bharathidasan University

BHARATHIDASAN UNIVERSITY TIRUCHIRAPPALLI ? 620 024

CENTRE FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION

TEACHING OF ENGLISH B.Ed. I YEAR

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Chairman Dr.V.M.Muthukumar Vice-Chancellor Bharathidasan University Tiruchirapplli-620 024 Vice-Chairman Dr.C.Thiruchelvam Registrar Bharathidasan University Tiruchirapplli-620 024 Course Director Dr. R. Babu Rajendran Director i/c Centre for Distance Education Bharathidasan University Tiruchirapplli-620 024 Course Material Co-ordinator Dr.K.Anandan Professor & Head, Dept .of Education, CDE Bharathidasan University Tiruchirapplli-620 024 Author Dr.S.Parthiban Principal i/c Govt.College of Education Vellore- 632006

The Syllabus adopted from 2015-16 onwards

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UNIT ? I

STRUCTURE 1.1. OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON 1.2. ROLE OF ENGLISH IN THE PRESENT-DAY INDIA

1.2.1. English as a National Link Language. 1.2.2. English as an International Link Language. 1.2.3. English as a Library Language. 1.3. RATIONALE FOR LEARNING ENGLISH 1.4. POSITIONS OF ENGLISH IN THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM 1.4.1. Aims of Teaching English at the Primary Level. 1.4.2. Aims of Teaching English at the Secondary Level. 1.4.3. Aims of Teaching English at the Higher Secondary Level. 1.5. OBJECTIVES OF TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE 1.6. TEACHING THE COMMUNICATION SKILLS 1.6.1. Teaching Listening. 1.6.2. Teaching Speaking. 1.6.3. Teaching Reading. 1.6.4. Teaching Writing. 1.7. LET US SUM UP 1.8. KEY WORDS 1.9. ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

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1.1. OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON English, in India, is mainly taught as a second language. Hence, the aim of this unit is to

familiarise the students with the importance of learning English as a second language. Also, this unit focuses on establishing English as a world, official, link and library language. Psychology and linguistics play a major role in language acquisition. As this is so, this unit enables the learners to realise the contribution of Psychology and Linguistics in language learning and exposes the interference of Mother Tongue in learning English as a second language.

1.2. ROLE OF ENGLISH IN THE PRESENT-DAY INDIA Language is an essential element in the culture of any society. We live in a community and

our living in a community is made meaningful mainly by the language. In the words of Leonard Bloomfield,

"Community is formed by the activity of language, and speech utterances give us the most direct insight into its working".

Language is a tool to understand and appreciate the culture of a human society and we must learn its language to understand it clearly. When English people started ruling India, it is not clear whether they tried to realize the importance of Indian languages as media to learn and appreciate the Indian culture but they were very categorical that Indians learn their language for other purpose. They had to spend a lot of money on clerical work as they had to recruit clerks from Britain. So, Lord Macaulay thought to teach English to Indian people mainly to produce cheap clerks. This is a kind of outsourcing that English people applied even more than three hundred years ago. Now, English has become a part and parcel of people of India. It has become an indispensable language. India is a developing country. No progressive country can ill afford to lose the utility of this world language.

English played a very major role in our fight for freedom. As India is a land of many languages, the unification of freedom fighters for national cause, seemed to be remote. But again English only played the role of unifying the freedom fighters from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. When we weigh the benefit between what English got from India and what India got from

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English, and it is strongly felt that India is benefited more from English. And it is not an exaggeration to say India is found bondage to English.

English is a language of the court in India. Not only in the Supreme Court, but also in the High Courts and District Courts, the only suitable language is English. In Tamil Nadu, the law practitioners are fighting to make Tamil as the language of court. As we say ,,bad translation of a good book is a crime, attempt to translate the judicial phrases into Tamil will be an uphill task and sometimes it will render ridiculousness. However, some changes have been done very recently regarding the language of the court.

In India English is used for international trade and industry. Most of the international business activities are done through American dollar. This itself forces Indian traders to use English for their business communications. However, with the falling value of American dollar against the Indian rupee there is a shift of business dealing from American dollar to European Euro. But, Brexit (Britain Exit) from European Union rendered volatile to both in business and also to the English language. The remaining 27 countries in the European Union declared that they would not use English as the language for communication in their official and business situations. In pre-Brexit period English had its telling effect in the European union, either the business is done through American dollar or European Euro, English did not lose its coveted place in the international trade and industry. Now, it has a paramount importance in the context of European union managing the official and business works without using English. If the European union is able to manage their transaction without English, then the coveted place that English enjoys will definitely be shaken. We have to wait and see if it will be detrimental to the European union without English. If European union is able to withstand in their businesses without English, then, the words of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru will be disproved as he did not want to replace English by any Indian language for the possible detrimental effect.

English plays a very major role in our educational system. It is taught as a compulsory subject in almost all the states in the country. Many students find it difficult in getting pass mark in English. Still English is persistently made a compulsory subject in India. It is the medium of instruction in technical, medical and law colleges. All PG courses are done through English only. The Kothari Commission (1966) said, "Mother tongue has a pre-eminent claim as the medium of instruction at the school and college stages. Moreover, the medium of instruction at the

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